Tomato Pickle ~ Andhra style spicy Takkali Urugai or Thokku

Ripe for the picking - Andhra Tameta Uragai pickle

I stubbed my toe onto the dining table leg and the nail popped off but it was still barely hanging from the cuticle. Anyways I bandaged my toe and went about my chores. I dropped kids off to school and on my way back home I passed a thelewala (hand cart) selling ripe tomatoes. My driver knows me well enough and said, Madam, tomato chanagide, Photo tege (kannada language)? Don’t you just love it when people around you know what will cheer you up!

Anyway I bought 2 kg of these luscious desi/natti heirloom tomatoes which has a hint sourness and full of the sun ripened tomato flavour in them.

Desi Natti Heirloom Tomatoes

I returned home and knew I’m low on my pickle/chutney stock so I decided to make a batch of Tomato thokku (cross between chutney and pickle), but I wanted to make it spicy Andhra style to eat with curd rice or Idli/Dosa.

Pulp and seeds scooped out of the tomatoes and placed in the sun to dry

The unique method of preparation is that the tomatoes pulp/seeds are scooped out and the tomatoes halves are sprinkled with sea salt and sun dried for a whole day.

Tomato Uragai

1 kg tomatoes, halved and the seeds/pulp scooped out

2 tbsp tamarind pulp

6-8 Guntur dry red chillies broken into halves

1/4 tsp asafoetida powder

1/2 tsp mustard seeds for tempering

1 tbsp crushed garlic (optional)

6-8 curry leaves

1/4 cup sesame/gingelly oil

Salt to taste

Dry Roast/Sun dry and powder:

10-12 Byadgi dry red chillies

5-6 short dry red chillies

1 tsp each of Cumin, Fenugreek and Mustard seeds

Method

Sun dry the tomato halves in the sun for 1-2 days depending on the intensity of the heat until the skins attain a crinkly texture. Blend to a coarse paste the tomatoes and tamarind. Roast the powder ingredients and set aside.

Heat gingelly/sesame oil and add the mustard seeds and Guntur dry chillies. Allow it to darken then add the crushed garlic, curry leaves and asafoetida. Reduce the heat to low and add the powder and the tomato purée. Cook on low, stirring occasionally until the oil floats to the sides of the pan and it emits a beautiful aroma. About 6-8 minutes, add salt and turn off the flame. Cool and store in a glass jar in the fridge. This will keep for up to 3-4 weeks... but you will finish it before that!

Tomatoes after a whole day of drying in the sun

Dried tomatoes and a bit of tamarind ground to a chunky pulp

Large crinkly Byadgi chillies, Cumin seeds, Guntur chillies, Fenugreek seeds, Mustard seeds

Sun dried spices ground to a fine powder

Guntur dry red chillies, minced garlic, curry leaves

Heat oil, add the spices and cook along with tomatoes and spice powder

Cook until oil forms a ring on the side of the pan and the pickle has thickened and emits a beautiful aroma

Getting to the Root: Taro ~ Arbi ki sabzi

A native to India, the root vegetable Taro is recognized to have originated in southern India. Oddly Nigeria is the top producer of this vegetable and India is not even in the top 5!
Like any root vegetable it likes deep, moist, swampy type soil to grown in....very tropical indeed. There are over 25 varieties and the most common one in India are the small sized ones that range from 1.5-3 inches in length.

Arbi ki Sabzi - Taro root in yoghurt gravy

I cook this vegetable quite often as the boys enjoy this vegetable lightly spiced and plenty roasted, but then there are days when I like to make it gravy style so that we can have it along with roti or rice. I often surprise guests with the recipe I'm sharing today and tends to draw much curiosity and a new found appreciation for the vegetable that often stumps people on how to cook it!

Couple of important things to keep in  mind is that the tuber has a mildly gooey texture on the outer surfac after cooking.

1. Choose even sized taro or arbi, so that they cook evenly.
2. Boil the arbi in water for 6-10 minutes depending upon the quantity.
3. Peel the skin off and then cut in even sized pieces.
4. Roasting the arbi gives it a crisp exterior and is perfect to use in the Air-fryer.
5. Finally, some varieties can give you an mildly itchy/tingely senstations in your palms while peeling so just lighly grease your palms and add some sour agent like, amchur, lime juice or tamarind water while further cooking the tuber to neutralize the oxalates.

Arbi ki sabzi in a thali meal: Raita, Arbi, stirfried mixed vegetables, thepla, pickle and chutney

Arbi ki Sabzi
Ingredients
500 gms Arbi or Taro root
2 tbsp cornstarch/arrowroot powder
1/2 tsp haldi/turmeric
1 cup curd or yoghurt
1 cup water
1 tbsp besan/ gram flour
2-4 cloves

1/2 tsp ajwain/ carom seeds

1/2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp amchur powder/dry mango powder

1/2 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder

1/8 tsp Hing/Asafoetida

1 tbsp grated ginger

3 tbsp ghee

Oil for shallow frying

1 Green chilli, slit

Salt to taste

Juice of one small lime

Coriander leaves for garnish

Method

Boil the arbi in water for 6-8 mintures or until they are soft enough to pierce with a knife. Cool, peel and slice into 1/2 inch thick slices. Coat with cornstarch and salt and shallow fry in a pan until pale gold in colour. Remove and set aside.

Blend to a thick puree the curds, water and besan and set aside.

Heat a kadhai with ghee and add the cloves, jeera, and carom seeds and allow it to sputter. Add the hing, turmeric, ginger and red chilli powder. Add the curd puree, lower heat and cook for 6-8 minutes until it comes to a soft simmer, add a bit more water if you want the gravy to be thinner, add salt and the pan fried arbi. add a slit chilli and cook for another minute or two and then add lime juice and coriander leaves and turn off the flame. Serve hot with phulka rotis or any bread of your choice. 

Instant green chilli pickle: Get you chilli fix

Sometimes a new product or idea can spread like fire, which is exactly what happened when the chilli pepper was introduced to the Indian continent by the Portuguese who in turn brought it from either the Caribbean islands or Chile/Brazil.

Indian cooking and Ayurveda are not exactly accepting of "foreign" foods but the green chilli was quickly incorporated into our cuisine and particularly Ayurvedic medicines. The chilli pepper soon pushed aside the black pepper in many Ayurvedic formulations to cure diseases from Cholera to medicated ointments/balms to relieve joint aches. Today one cannot dream of indian cooking without the chilli in its many forms, fresh, dry, powder, marinated...

Last week I visited the produce market several times and each time I picked a batch of green chillies....I cannot understand why I did that considering we don't really consume too many chillies as the boys don't like to eat even faintly spicy foods! It's okay though, as I really needed to make a batch of Instant chilli pickle. Ever since I started eating unpolished brown rice, Jowar berries and ragi rotis...I CRAVE some chilli heat, so I always have a small jar of this pickle in the fridge. It goes well with dal roti/rice or mixed into a salad.

Ingredients

100-150 gms fresh green chillies, washed, dried and cut into small pieces
1/3 cup split mustard seeds
1tbsp Nigella seeds
1/2 cup white vinegar
3tbsp mustard oil or any oil you may have at home
1tsp turmeric powder
2-3 tbsp salt

Method

Mix all the ingredients and stir well. Store in a glass jar, preferably in the refrigerator to keep the chillies crisp. The pickle is ready to consume in a few days after the chilli heat has had a chance to mellow in the salty sour brine.

Not in a Pickle

Though summer is officially over and Fall has begun, I chanced upon some raw mangoes at the local Indian grocery store. My better half C enjoys eating pickles, especially homemade ones with his meals……so I decided to make a pickle I had not tasted in awhile.

As a child I clearly remember eating fresh Avakai urga made by my maternal grandma, Kamalamma. When I stumbled upon my early teens I was considered “old enough” to be in charge of chores and every year, like clockwork I was taken by Grandma on a trip to scour the markets for the rawest, sourest mangoes. it was my responsibility to sit with the vendor while they cut the mangoes as per grandma’s instruction and to make sure that: (1) hand selected mangoes were not substituted with lower quality ones and, (2) they did not short us on the quantity. For all my efforts, I would be rewarded with a meal at a local restaurant before having to lug the baskets home!

Kamalamma’s recipe calls for a fair amount of garlic and chickpeas in the pickle - unusual, as we did not consume much garlic in our home! However, I like this version of Avakai the best as it’s not summer until one eats cool Thayir sadam with urga....when one bites into a crunchy piece of garlic, or a salty chickpea and then sucks on a piece of the pickled mango - sour and spicy…..so enticing is the pickle that it only makes you want to eat more! I can still savour the flavor of Kamalamma's pickle and decided that I had to make my own version of that classic…….the easy way of course!

My Avakai Urga

Raw green mangoes – 4 large, about ½ lbs each (make sure the fruit is fairly hard to the touch – this means that it is still raw)
1 Cup small cloves of peeled garlic (cut large cloves into smaller pieces)
1 Cup dry chick peas soaked in water overnight
2 tbsp whole fenugreek seeds
2 tbsp rai na kuria, hulled and split mustard seeds
2 tsp asafoetida (heeng) powder
2 Cups Pickle Masala (by Swad, Bansi or Deep which is what I used)
1-1/2 Cups Salt (depending on how sour the fruit is, + if very sour, - if less)
2 Cups gingelly/ sesame seed oil (may be substituted with a good quality peanut oil)

Method

Wash and completely dry the mangoes. Cut into 1 inch cubes (use a very SHARP large knife as cutting through the inner shell can be tough) discard the seeds. Transfer into a large mixing bowl.

Heat oil in a pan until smoking point, turn off the flame and allow it to cool. In the meanwhile drain the chickpeas and remove external moisture by allowing it to dry completely(on a paper towel). Clean the peeled garlic cloves as well and make sure that they are bone dry as well.

Add ¾ of the salt and ¾ of the pickle masala and stir it into the cut mangoes. Make sure that all pieces are evenly coated with the masala. Add the garlic, chickpeas, fenugreek seeds, rai na kuria, and the heeng powder. Mix well to ensure even distribution, now taste the masala mix ~ it should taste extra salty, spicy and pungent, if not add more quantities of both the salt and pickle masala(the salt and spices mellow with age). Take a clean container (zap it in the microwave for a minute or two, or clean the container with vinegar) and slowly ladle in the mango mixture. Top off with the cooled oil. Tap the sides of the container to remove any air pockets. Add more if oil if it does not cover the top of the pickle as this will help keep the pickle from spoiling. Too much oil? Don’t worry I will suggest ideas on what to do with left over pickle marinade/oil in another post (making sure you visit again).

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Finally, the last part is a challenge for most people – including me…....allowing the pickle to rest/mature in the sun for a couple of days! When you cannot wait anymore, transfer small (?) quantities of the pickle from the big container into several smaller ones for distribution to family and friends and one for personal use. Keep the large container in the coolest part of the refrigerator until you need to replenish your daily dose, Enjoy!